"Dog-Stalin": Stories of women convicted for fighting the regime
Among the political prisoners who went through the Soviet camps there were many women: the statistics for 1950 reports that their number exceeded half a million people. In a special way, the fate of those who fell under the accusation of the notorious 58th article - for counter-revolutionary activities. As part of the mediaacacton dedicated to the year of the centenary of the revolution and the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Terror, with the support of the Memorial Society, we are telling the stories of women who were imprisoned for "careless utterances" and how they tried to fight the system.
Ella Markman
MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION "DEATH OF BERII"
Ella Markman was born in Tbilisi in 1924. The Markman family suffered from political repression: her father, Deputy Minister of Forest Industry of Transcaucasia, was accused of treason and shot, Ella's mother from 1938 to 1942 was imprisoned in Karlag Forced Labor Camp. In 1937, Ella and sister Julia were sent to an orphanage, from where they were taken by their relatives — the family of Father Fanny Markshaf’s sister. In 1941, Ella moved to Batumi to see her mother’s sister, Sheva Belses. Ella graduated with honors from school and entered the Tashkent University in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.
The girl’s father was an ideological communist and his daughter was raised in the same spirit. From early childhood, Dad taught that the enemies want one to Ella "sour," so that she had a bad mood, as a result, she "lifted her legs up." In order not to please the enemies, he advised her never to hang her nose. Pope, a revolutionary underground worker, taught Ella that to hide eyes from the truth more than cowardice is a crime against the high rank of a man. The crime is not only against himself, but also his homeland. The girl learned that she should be responsible for every beat of her homeland's pulse. Once and for all she decided for herself that she could not be just an outside observer of how the fate of the country was shaping up.
In 1943, almost immediately after graduation, Ella Markman began an "anti-Soviet activity." She returned to Tbilisi and joined the underground youth organization “Death of Beria”: Ella was the only girl in her. In the capital, Ella, after many years, accidentally met her classmates from the 42nd school, the guys with whom she had been friends for a very long time - they were united by their hatred for Stalin. After all, according to young people, he did not like Georgia, especially Tbilisi, and they did not like him in return. Why did they not direct their activities immediately against Stalin? It was believed that it would be easier to get to Beria. Each of them has always dreamed of committing a feat. The guys decided that they would not live with tails between their legs, but would fight for the ideals of communism, following Lenin’s precepts. Participants in the Death of Beria were engaged in the propaganda of communist views and became known for making spectacular speeches at the speeches. Such words sounded, for example: "We hope that our blood will show how people who are for the truth are being massacred."
The main activity of the organization was the distribution of leaflets calling: “Citizens, look around! Look at what is being done with the country, with our Georgia! The best people were shot or died in the dungeons of the NKVD. The bastards in blue caps completely control the lives of each of us. Thousands of NKVD employees wear in the pockets of party cards, and therefore the party card has become a fiction. The dog-Stalin is guilty of millions of victims. So you can not live. Rise from his knees and fight! " Young underground workers wanted to kill Beria, and, according to Markman, this plan could be implemented. In order to get rid of such an enemy as Beria, she was ready to go on to become his mistress — the general commissar, as you know, was fond of young pretty girls. But for Ella, in her own words, the most important dream was to destroy Stalin.
Young underground fighters wanted to kill Beria, and, according to Markman, this plan could be carried out, but most of all she dreamed of destroying Stalin.
In 1948, all participants in the "Death of Beria" were sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for participating in the activities of an anti-Soviet organization. Two more friends of young people were attracted to the case, “stitching” them into committing illegal actions without any evidence. For five months while the investigation was going on, Markman was tortured. Finally, the military tribunal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a sentence. The judge claimed that all the activities of Ella Markman fall under the execution, but he was canceled, and the girl was sentenced to term in correctional camps. At one of the interrogations, Ella Markman stated that she did everything just for the love of her people. She believed that people who could not and did not want to put up with untruth were not very good at many of the “scoundrels” who had come to rule the country. Many years after rehabilitation, Ella recalled that she had never regretted that she was imprisoned. In an interview, she said that she would never have learned so much valuable if she had not encountered the camp life.
In conclusion, Ella immediately stated that she would not go for any light work in the zone. And from the first to the last day the girl was at the common work - at the logging, she built houses and roads together with the rest. At first, she had difficulty with these duties. She seemed to herself very weak and insufficiently prepared for heavy physical labor. Swinging her pick at the first time, she almost hit someone on the head, for which she was very embarrassed. Ella was terribly tired at work, did not give herself any relaxation and stubbornly brought everything to the end. After the end of the evening shift, she could not even go into the dining room - she fell down on the bed and fell asleep. Her friend Luda managed to bring lunch to Ella in a room that was strictly forbidden. The main work of the prisoners was the construction of the road. One day, returning again after a busy day, she realized that she was less tired than the others. From that day, Ella began to help other women to cope with their camp tasks, and she carried the necessary materials when she saw that women were exhausted or feeling completely unwell. For help in other people's affairs, neither her nor the women she rescued were ever punished.
In 1952, they tightened the regime of prisoners and began to check the books they kept. All the books that were tested were marked with the stamp of the cultural and educational part of the camp. Ella kept a large volume of Lermontov. Two supervisors came to her: one was “kind,” and the second was nicknamed the Rat. She examined Ella’s books, took Lermontov, ordered “this to be removed” and threw her aside. The first matron, deciding to save the book, said: "What are you, this is just Lermontov!" - to which the Rat replied to her that the writer had “royal shoulder straps”, he should be immediately taken away.
In the evening, Markman went up to the dining room, remembering some forgotten thing. After some time, she saw a Rat, which, moving her lips (she was semi-literate), read Mtsyri in the lines and wept, then Ella understood what poetry was. They became for her and her friends a real support. In winter, when women made the road, Ella read aloud lines from Blok. Other girls, dragging their cars back and forth, repeated for Markman the poems she knew by heart, as if they were taking her real exam. And then Ella tried to compose herself. The poems she wrote were angry and provocative:
Listen to you, inquisitors! All prisons taken together Will not stop retribution: it is predetermined And we, sinking in tears of mothers, knee-deep, Washed with our own blood, looked to death in the face, We will judge you for our deceived generation, For our dead and rotten fathers alive.
Markman wrote letters to her friends who were in other camps. She believed that a person, being in such conditions, should not be discouraged, give up before the blows of fate and “lift the paws up”. Such a capitulation always upset Markman, and she tried to support her fellow supporters as best she could.
In 1956, Markman released the Supreme Council's review committee. She returned to Tbilisi and married Joseph Sokolovsky, a prisoner with whom she had a long correspondence; in 1961 she gave birth to a son from him, and later they divorced. Markman no longer engaged in political activities, worked as an ambulance dispatcher at the combine of the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry. When she came out, Ella traveled a lot and sent postcards to her relatives with stories about places she visited. Markman was rehabilitated only in 1968.
Susanna Pechuro
MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION "UNION OF FIGHT FOR THE CASE OF REVOLUTION"
1946 Susanna Pechuro recalls how very hungry. She wrote: “How could these people ignore the multitude of beggars who flooded the streets of the capital, not see exhausted children in rags at the doors of their houses, I do not understand. We, schoolchildren, saw and tried to help at least something, within our very limited opportunities - at least for children. " At the end of the 1940s, campaigns began that became the strongest blow to the Soviet intelligentsia. So, Susanna told about the reaction of her father to the fate of his favorite artist - actor of the Jewish theater Solomon Mikhoels. With horror, she recalls the cold January day when her father came into the house, told the family that Mikhoels was killed and wept.
In 1948, schoolgirl Susanna Pechuro came to the literary circle of the city house of pioneers. There were teenagers from different Moscow schools: everyone was from twelve to seventeen years old. Initially, they were all united in the love of literature. Fifteen-year-old Susanna especially made friends with two young men, inseparable friends: Boris Slutsky and Vladlen Furman. At that time, a campaign against cosmopolitanism was in full swing, which included overt falsification of historical events. Susanna Pechuro recalls: “Russia was declared the birthplace of elephants.” The names of great foreign scientists disappeared from school textbooks. People with Russian surnames were declared inventors and discoverers of everything in the world. She was impressed by the attitude of teachers, who, at great risk, told their students the truth: “I understand how much courage our teachers showed in order to maximally“ put the brakes on ”this crazy campaign, which broke even the smartest, most educated and cultural people of the country.”
The literary circle was headed by an inconspicuous leader. She did not particularly interfere in the affairs of the members of the circle until a certain point. One day at the end of the winter of 1950, one of the students read a poem about a school evening at a group meeting. And “pedagogyna”, according to Pechora’s recollections, stated that this is an anti-Soviet poem, since “Soviet youth cannot have sad,“ decadent ”moods”. The teenagers rebelled and stated that they refuse to engage in a circle under her leadership. Then they decided to get together themselves - just to come twice a week to Boris Slutsky. Boris was seventeen years old, he graduated from school and was going to enter the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Vladlen Furman was a year older than Boris, he studied in the first year of the 3rd Moscow Medical Institute. Schoolgirl Susanna Pechuro was only sixteen years old.
The guys turned on the fan so that he drowned out their conversations. Outdoor surveillance, according to the memories of Susanna Pechuro, was almost open
In the spring of 1950, Boris admitted to Susanna that he was going to fight for the realization of the ideals of the revolution — and against the existing regime. He offered the girl to end the relationship so as not to bring trouble to her. Susanna Pechuro told me that she was shocked: “With all my critical attitude towards my surroundings, I was very much infected with the characteristic“ double thinking ”, and it was difficult, almost impossible to admit that the evils of our society are so deep. Yes, and Boris I had such a place in my life that the gap was unthinkable for me. After two weeks of throwing, painful thoughts, I came to Boris and said that there would be no question of my leaving. "
At the end of the summer of the same year, Boris and Vladik came to Susanna with a proposal to create an underground organization to fight the Stalinist regime. She received the name "Union of the struggle for the cause of the Revolution." The decision to join such a society was not easy for Susanna: "I understood that, agreeing, I renounce all my previous life, in which I, an active and sincere Komsomol member, gladly attended school, dreaming of pedagogical activity in the future, where I was loved my dear friends, from whom I had no secrets, where, finally, there were my parents and little brother, whose life would be crippled by my fate. What a pity it was for them, for myself, for my youth! " Pechuro believed that her consent had more emotions than understanding the situation in the country and the need for struggle.
Boris was the informal leader of the literary circle, and he also became the formal leader of the SDR. He brought another active member to the organization, Evgeny Gurevich. Later others, mostly friends of Boris, Zhenya and Susanna, joined the group. In October, there was a split: the participants of the CRA strongly differed in their views on the methods of organization. Some of them, led by Gurevich, believed that the struggle against the regime was impossible without weapons and violence, while others professed a peaceful protest. Some participants after this dispute left the SDR - and more young people did not meet until the arrest.
In the late 1950s, they began to be watched by the esdeers. In the apartment of Boris was installed a wiretap. The guys turned on the fan so that he drowned out their conversations. Outdoor surveillance, according to the memories of Susanna Pechuro, was almost open. And after a while the arrests began. On the night of January 18-19, 1951, Susanna was arrested: “It was painful to look at the shocked, unaware relatives. My father had a heart attack. The four-year-old brother, lifted from the bed, cried in his mother’s arms, shouting:“ Let these uncles leave! "Mom frightened him comforted. At the door wiper sleepily swayed - understood."
They humiliated us, insulted us, deceived us, intimidated us, did not give us many hours of sleep a day, in a word, they used all those methods that were later delicately called "unauthorized"
Then she realized that her childhood was over and that she would never return to this house again. Until recently, Pechuro did not know whether they took the guys or only arrested her. She swore to herself in no way to name names. But at the very first interrogation I learned about sixteen people who were deservedly or mistakenly recorded in the SDR. Then she learned about the arrest of her friends. For the first two weeks, Pechuro was kept in the common cell of the prison of the regional MGB office in Malaya Lubyanka. Later, her case was transferred to the Department of Especially Important Affairs of the USSR MGB, and Susanna herself was imprisoned in a solitary cell of the Lefortovo prison: “The investigation lasted for a year and was very difficult. We were humiliated, insulted, deceived, intimidated, did not give a day or two to sleep, in short, used all those methods that were later delicately called "unlawful". "
During the investigation, the participants of the SDR tried to ascribe various, even the most ridiculous accusations: from the plans for the murder of Stalin to the intention to undermine the metro. After the end of the investigation and familiarization with the case, Susanna found many protocols under which her forged signature stood. February 7, the trial began. The process took place "without the participation of the parties", that is, without the right to defense. On the night of February 13-14, the sentence was announced. Boris Slutsky, Vladlen Furman and Yevgeny Gurevich were sentenced to death. Ten people, including Susanna, received twenty-five years of imprisonment, and three more - ten years.
The first three years of imprisonment, Susanna was actively interrogated. Later, this was attempted to be explained by the fact that the girl allegedly occupied the post of a liaison between several "Jewish nationalist organizations." For five years of imprisonment (after a review of the case before that, the term was reduced by twenty years), the girl changed eleven prisons and seven camps. Susanna noted that in the camps she was faced with a sea of "human grief, humiliation and despair, and it was simply impossible to lament about her fate." She spent in captivity for five years and four months and recalls that she managed to get acquainted with a lot of the smartest and most interesting people: "These were bitter, difficult years, but this school was very useful for me in life. Without passing it, I would probably a completely different person. "
In conclusion, Susanna Pechuro was most worried about her hopeless future, and the fate of three young guys - her friends. All the years in the camps, she tried to learn about them. Only in 1956, after her release, did she learn about the death of Boris, and only in 1986, the exact date and place of the execution. Boris, Vladlen and Eugene were killed March 26, 1952 in Butyrskaya prison. Susanna Pechuro continued to study after her release from prison, specializing in the history of Russia, in particular, the repressions of the times of Ivan the Terrible. In the 1990s, she devoted a lot of time and energy to working in the Memorial community.
Maya Ulanovskaya
MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION "UNION OF FIGHT FOR THE CASE OF REVOLUTION"
Maya Ulanovskaya was born on October 20, 1932 in New York. Her parents are Soviet scouts. Отец, Александр Петрович Улановский - член анархических групп, ещё в 1910-е арестован и отправлен в ссылку, где находился вместе со Сталиным. Когда родилась дочь, он был резидентом нелегальной разведки в США. Мать - Надежда Марковна Улановская. В молодости участвовала в организации Молодого революционного интернационала. В 1918-1919 годах состояла в "просоветском" подполье в Одессе, распространяла листовки. Вместе с мужем поступила в военную разведку.During World War II, she worked with foreign correspondents at the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
Under all these circumstances, Maya’s life went quite normally: school, friends, library, trips to the rink. True, parents often spoke English at home. Yes, and Stalin especially did not like. The girl didn’t seem to be concerned; she lived in her teenage world, never doubting the fairness of the existing system. After all, survived the Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War, it seemed that the most peaceful and sustainable time had come when children should grow up happy. Everything changed on the day of the arrest of the mother in February 1948. For the next year, the family lived in anticipation of the arrest of their father. Of course it happened. Maya Ulanovskaya recalled: “I was left alone. My younger sister lived with my grandmother in Ukraine. I was not interested in whether socialism was built in the Soviet Union. I only knew that my relatives had a great misfortune and that it was common.” Everything collapsed: people felt own powerlessness in front of a huge sentencing machine.
Whether by inertia, or because of boredom, Maya entered the Institute of Food Industry. There was nowhere else to go: Jews were not taken. Together with her friends Zhenya and Tamara, the girl was fascinated by philosophy. In the life of Maya, there were people who understood her: among other things, they were united by disagreement with the existing system. In late October 1950, Ulanovskaya became a member of the "Union of Struggle for the Cause of Revolution". The program, theses and the manifesto of the organization were written. Ulanovskaya liked to be close to these people. True, all the participants of the CRA did not have to meet together - they finally knew about each other only at the trial.
Maya visited Lubyanka, Lefortovo and Butyrka prisons. She sat in solitary confinement and in a punishment cell. Everywhere with her was a fur coat, inherited from the mother - other things were confiscated. Inside the fur coat could hide a lot of prohibited items. At the stages, a fur coat was laid, lying on the floor; everyone who wanted it took shelter. Ulanovskaya admitted that she was not sitting in solitary confinement. A person with little life experience is difficult to sit on: he simply has nothing to think long hours there. Books were given little, although the libraries were filled with books, sometimes even those that you would not get free. She was a "patient" prisoner, so she rarely went to the cell. The punishment cell - the worst. Not because there you can not sit down and do not give food. The punishment cell is a terribly cold place, and the cold is painful. It was visible only a small square of the sky through the fort. Once, Maya got there on her birthday when she was nineteen years old.
Life in prison was not what it seemed. Even before prison, Ulanovskaya learned the prison alphabet - her principle was described in the Small Soviet Encyclopedia. Maya thought it would be interesting to knock with other prisoners, to learn from them some information. When she was arrested, it turned out that no one has been using the alphabet for a long time. The guards were not particularly friendly, sometimes even making fun of prisoners. If there was a different attitude, it was usually conspicuous.
Ulanovskaya recalled: “Unlike the others, there was an elderly corps. He spoke to me humanly several times, and his eyes were not as indifferent as the others. Once I bought cigarettes in a stall. He went into the chamber and began to persuade me smoking, and it is better to buy cookies for the remaining money. And I was uncomfortable not to obey him. " He acted in a fatherly manner, seeing that Maya Ulanovskaya was still a very young girl. Investigators recorded non-existent testimonies, persuaded children to inform each other, find out their relationship with each other in order to have space for manipulations. But they understood who was in front of them. One of the investigators once said: "Take all your pants off and fill it with a good one!" Meanwhile, all the performers of this system knew what was awaiting the youth group.
Everywhere with her was a fur coat, inherited from the mother: inside the fur coat it was possible to hide a lot of prohibited items. On the stages of a fur coat, laying on the floor
On the day of the trial, Maya was very worried, but not at all about her fate. She knew that in prison everyone should cut: "The guys will be shaved." Ulanovskaya sighed with relief when she saw her comrades with their old hairstyles. Everyone was looking forward to not sentencing and adjudicating, but meeting each other. They listened attentively to each other. The judges almost sympathized with the guys, but could not do anything. The sentence was pronounced: young people became traitors, terrorists. They did not miss the fact that most of them were Jews, and, accordingly, the organization "had a nationalistic character." Its participants allegedly wanted to overthrow the existing system by methods of armed uprising and terror. No one could fully believe that Slutsky, Furman and Gurevich were sentenced to death. Ulanovskaya writes Susanna Pechuro already from the camp: “I wanted to meet to talk about my wife”; "... you know little about Boris. If only they were alive and well."
Maya Ulanovskaya herself was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. When they said the last word, everyone got up and talked about how he repented that he had embarked on the path of fighting the Soviet authorities, how, thinking about everything in prison, he realized that he was in error. One of the guys said: "No punishment will seem to me too harsh." In prison they say that these are "magic words", they must act on the judges. And Ulanovskaya believed that everyone speaks sincerely, and after years she understood that this way, most likely, they wanted to achieve leniency.
Maya felt lonely among friends. She always knew that she would be in prison. And it cannot be otherwise: she is a child of the enemies of the people. She did not understand why to hide something - she really did not like to live like that. Contemporaries notice that she always said what she thought. Sometimes this prevented an agreement with the investigator or the boss. Maya wanted to get to the fullest, because she knew why - for justice, honesty. She was not afraid of prison at all. Mother once told her that there is not everything as scary as it seems. All the same people, the work, however, harder. The main thing is to keep yourself inside. Letters of parents from the zone fascinated Maya: they were very "cheerful", the father and mother did not give up at all.
Ulanovskaya was sent to Ozerlag, forced labor camp No. 7. This special camp for political prisoners was part of the GULAG camp system. The prisoners were to build a section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Bratsk - Taishet. They were engaged in woodworking, logging, lumber production. Ozerlag - the closest of the special areas. Shipment in Tayshet was full. Before instilling those who arrived in the barracks, they did "sanitization". The route of the regime camp stretched for six hundred kilometers. Every four or five kilometers there was a camp column - and each contained thousands of people. The “special contingent” (the so-called convicts under Article 58) was kept separately. In residential areas, the regime is similar to the prison: bars on the windows, locks on the barracks.
Forty-ninth column. Ulanovskaya worked on earthworks. Her friend Vera Prokhorova recalled that in the zone they had a case that shows the strength of Maya's character, able to cope with any difficulties. They were taken to work, they appointed a brigadier. The work was difficult - to dig trenches. The brigadier said: "Decide for yourself whether you will do it or not." No one, of course, wanted to. Then Maya took a shovel and began to work alone, and with great enthusiasm. In the end, all tightened up - at work, time passes faster.
The twenty-third column was twenty-one kilometers from the city of Bratsk. There, clothes were sewn with numbers on the chest, back, head, and knee. Prisoners were allowed to receive parcels from their relatives. If you don’t work out the norm at work, they don’t give a ration of the camp: eight hundred grams of bread, soup, two hundred grams of cereal, five grams of butter. Maya worked on mica production and in agriculture. She loved the artistic activities in which she enjoyed participating. They saved letters that Maya sent to her friends and parents. On holidays, when everyone was given a day off at work, she wrote letters all day. Invaluable was the help of a grandmother, who constantly sent something: for the eyes of Ulanovskaya called her a saint. In her free time, Maya always tried to study more, because she lacked knowledge. She reasoned that in prison you need to have a strong character, otherwise you can get under a bad influence. Since 1954, the situation in Ozerlag has changed a little. Correspondence was legalized, radio, newspapers, magazines, lectures and film moves appeared. Organized training classes. Introduced credits and early release. A personal account was opened for each prisoner, the earnings were transferred to him and the maintenance costs were deducted.
In 1956, the case of Maya Ulanovskaya was reviewed at the request of relatives. The term was reduced, followed by release under an amnesty with the removal of a criminal record and restoration of rights. In the same year, 1956, Ulanovskaya’s parents were released. Maya married Anatoly Yakobson - a poet, translator, literary critic and human rights activist. In the 1960s and 1970s, she participated in the human rights movement - mainly in samizdat. Together with her mother, Ulanovskaya wrote the book “The Story of One Family,” where she also told about the emergence of active resistance in the youthful underground. Today Maya Aleksandrovna Ulanovskaya lives in Israel.
Photo:Personal archive of Alexey Makarov, Gulag Museum (1, 2), Wikimedia Commons
